If you’re not down with Milwaukee Brewers’ closer Abner Uribe’s strikeout celebration, we’ve got two words for ya!
Well, as it turns out, Uribe’s own manager, Pat Murphy, is most definitely not down with it. Because after Uribe dropped a D-Generation X crotch chop on the St. Louis Cardinals dugout Tuesday night, he said was “embarrassed by it.”
It’s not like it was a close game or anything. Abner Uribe was pitching with a 6-0 lead in the eighth inning when he struck out Alec Burleson (after Burleson challenged the call and was denied) to end the inning.
“I don’t know what got over him” Pat Murphy said after the game. “I mean, he’s been an emotional guy, but that kind of thing, that’s just not how we do things. I was embarrassed by it. Why are we doing it? It’s a 6-0 game. What are we doing there? It must be something deeper that I don’t know about.
“I love the kid. Believe me, I love the kid. There’s so much good in this kid. He’s been so great for us in so many ways, but that’s unacceptable.”
Cardinals player Ivan Herrera, who was on second base when Uribe celebrated, agreed with Murphy, saying, “I feel like it’s just disrespectful to the entire team what he did, so, you know, I hope we take care of it and we move on.”
Why did Abner Uribe do the D-Generation X crotch chop in such a meaningless situation?
Abner Uribe claimed after the game that Oliver Marmol, the manager of the St. Louis Cardinals, had given the signal to hit some Brewers players in the previous game. So he made the gesture as a way of defending his teammates. Marmol also mentioned an incident prior to the game that prompted him to express himself at that moment in the game, though he did not provide specifics.
Uribe also said that he recognized the chop was “unacceptable” and that he owed an apology to his Milwaukee Brewers teammates and coaching staff.
“I don’t think it’s very professional for them to be making gestures like that,” Uribe said. “And I don’t think it’s right for any of my guys to be going out there with any sort of fear in their heads that we may be getting thrown at or they can’t play the game the way they want to be able to play.”